Place:


Milverton  Somerset

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Milverton like this:

MILVERTON, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Somerset. The town stands in a beautiful deep small valley, overhung in the W by steep high cultivated hills, 3½ miles NNW of Wellington r. station, and 13½ SW of Bridgewater; is an ancient place, formerly a borough, and still nominally governed by a portreeve and other officers; consists chiefly of three irregular streets; and has a post office, † under Wellington, Somerset, a good inn, a picturesque old marketcross, a church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school with £54 a year, and charities £59. ...


The church stands on an eminence, overlooking the town; is later English, of the time of Henry VII., 120 feet by 60; was recently restored; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower: and contains old seats with beautifully carved ends. A weekly market is held on Friday; and cattle fairs, on Easter Tuesday, 25 July, and 10 Oct. A considerable woollen trade was formerly carried on, but has almost entirely ceased. John de Milverton, a friar who wrote furiously against Wickliffe, and Dr. Thomas Young, who first deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics, and established the undulatory theory of light, were natives.—The parish contains also the hamlets of Preston-Bowyer, Houndsmoor, and Screedhay. Acres, 5,475. Real property, £11,481. Pop. in 1851,2,146; in 1861,1,895. Houses, 429. The decrease of pop. was caused partly by the closing of a large tannery. The surface is diversified; and the higher grounds command extensive views. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Langford-Budville, in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £600.* Patron, the Archdeacon of Taunton.—The sub-district contains also eight other parishes, and is in Wellington district. Acres, 15,130. Pop., 4,214. Houses, 912.-The hundred excludes two parishes of the sub-district, but includes two which lie beyond it. Acres, 14,812. Pop., 4,002. Houses, 862.

Milverton through time

Milverton is now part of Taunton Deane district. Click here for graphs and data of how Taunton Deane has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Milverton itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Milverton, in Taunton Deane and Somerset | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/13104

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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